Badger culls and a grey area of science

The subject of TB, cattle and badgers has rightly raised questions to test the science supporting the government's announcement last week (Letters, 26 July). The government considered this issue very carefully before saying it is minded to go ahead with a badger control policy. The decision was based on experts' advice, now summarised in a published paper. The government could not have taken that step without being satisfied that the latest science supported its position. That is also why there will be a further consultation on the strict guidelines that would be used to grant licences to control badgers in highly infected areas before a final decision.

The NFU is clear that science unequivocally demonstrates a link between the disease in badgers and cattle. We have never claimed that it is the only means of transmission, and that is why we fully support the strict cattle controls in place in England. The problem is that we are controlling the disease in cattle but not in badgers.

If we do nothing but wait until vaccines are available, the disease will be even further out of control, it will have spread into more areas and take even longer to eradicate. Badger controls were never going to be popular. The NFU supports this tough decision because it is right.

Peter Kendall

President, NFU

• Ben Goldacre's article on the eradication of bovine TB (July 23) brought sense to an ill-informed debate. But he claimed about half of all cattle infections came from a badger source. The Badger Trust is keen to know his reference for this assertion. Annex G of the coalition government's briefing for its public consultation on cattle TB eradication, which closed last December, said the exact number of incidents of bovine TB in cattle caused by badgers was not known. In fact, we are not aware of any proven number of cases of transmission in either direction.